There is a growing realisation that, despite deep historical, commercial, and cultural ties, the entrepreneurial ecosystems between India and Africa remain connected in a meaningful way. Doing so presents a tremendous opportunity to harness the creative capacity of entrepreneurs in both regions to work together to solve common and pressing problems and accelerate trade and investment in the process. This is the mission of the India-Africa Entrepreneurship Forum (IAEF).
Africa’s fifty-four states produced a combined GDP in excess of US$3.2 trillion, almost the same as India. The economic growth of the continent, which is estimated to be 3.2 percent in 2023, also houses six of the world’s fastest-growing economies.
With 57,000 startups valued at $450 billion, India is the third-largest entrepreneurial ecosystem in the world. Over 650 African startups, on the other hand, received total funding of $5.2 billion in 2022 (a 1700 percent increase since 2015), raising the combined valuation of about 900 startups to roughly $50 billion.
This gap presents an unprecedented opportunity for Indian and African entrepreneurs to partner with each other in their co-creating and co-founding activities, providing bilateral knowledge, funding, and market opportunities to their early-stage enterprises, thereby strengthening existing efforts to increase trade and development between the two economies.
Collaboration between startups and large but entrepreneurial businesses, on the other hand, can increase the reach and impact of innovation, according to Accenture Africa research, which increasingly correlates with higher economic performance at enterprise and economy-wide levels. By leveraging the power of ecosystems and open innovation, African economies can accelerate progress, unlocking Africa’s abundance for all.
In this context, the India-Africa Entrepreneurship Forum (IAEF) has evolved to become the go-to platform that connects entrepreneurs and investors actively involved in the India-Africa corridor. These dynamic ecosystems and subsystems have much in common and much to gain from interacting.